EDITORIAL - It could never be Obama

US President Barrack Obama is in a situation that is entirely of his own making, and one that he made recklessly -- how does he react to the senseless shooting of an Australian student by three bored teenagers, one of whom is an African-American, whose idea of fun they articulated by saying "let's kill somebody today."

Will Obama also say he could have been the Australian, just as he did in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case? Or will he simply keep quiet and hope the furor over the killing just goes away or gets shoved aside by other developments.

To recall, Trayvon Martin, a teenaged African-American, was shot dead in a scuffle by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member in Florida. The shooting touched a raw nerve in America. Charges of racism rent the air. Obama, as president of all Americans, could have stayed in the middle to calm the situation. He did not.

Instead, Obama said that if he had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon. And that was when the investigation into the case was just starting. When Zimmerman was eventually found not guilty, Obama again went public, this time saying he could have been Trayvon when he was younger.

If Obama did not deliberately help stoke the fires of racism in the country he is supposed to lead, that was certainly the effect. Massive protests against the verdict erupted, no doubt aided in no small measure by the sympathetic pronouncements of the president in favor of one side.

Now, less than two months after that controversial verdict, another shooting incident, again involving an African-American, is staring Obama in the face. But this time the shoe is on the other foot. This time it is the African-American who is charged with murder, along with two others.

Not only that, the incident now involves another country, Australia, a very staunch ally of the United States, but whose reaction to the killing could very well put a strain to the two countries' relations. Indeed, a former deputy prime minister of that country has already called on Australians not to go to the US.

Will Obama side with the African-American teenager charged in this case, just as he sided with Trayvon Martin? Or is race only an issue depending on who is the perpetrator and who is the victim? If race remains an issue in America, it is because some of its leaders and people of influence help make it so.